How much do you spend on presents throughout the year?

[Lally12]

I know this will vary massively based on income but I'm expecting a significant decrease in income next year and I'm trying to budget but equally, I have no idea what an 'average' budget for presents are?

After all bills, I'll have £400 a month personal money to live on. This will include £80 travel plus any fun trips e.g. clothes shopping, cinema, hair cuts etc.

I have 15 people to buy for (including 3 children which aren't mine).

I believe I can do £1000 over 12 months which will be about £80 a month from my £400.

This would be about £30 for each person for birthdays and another £30 for Xmas.

On this disposable income, is this average? Or am I being stingy? Should I be putting more of my 'spends' each month away?

TIA!

Can you discuss with the individuals involved and agree to cut down, or out, on present giving.

I'd cut out the present giving and put that money into your emergency savings, or to let you do something fun like going for coffee/ a meal with the people you would otherwise have given a gift to

Thanks for the reply!

This would be a big cut down - I estimate I've spent £1200 this Xmas alone plus a few hundred on birthdays throughout the year.

I'm just not sure on how much I should be allocating to the present fund.

Ah see this sounds great but my family are big into gift giving and while I could have that conversation, they would 100% still Buy for me and I'd feel terrible then.

Plus, I can imagine an element of 'manage your priorities' better being bandied about. Tbh, I like buying presents for them all, I just don't want to over extend myself or end up buying them rubbish because the budgets too small ...

I have slightly more disposable income but I do £600 on Christmas spread over the year, that’s secret Santa with my family, DH, DSSs and then eight family members, plus secret Santa at work x 2.

I then budget £42.50 for birthdays each month which is hit and miss. Some months are fine, others are birthday heavy or it’s DH and I end up supplementing. I have started giving family gifts rather than buying for individuals and that helps massively.

How about no more gifts for the adults and a token gift of no more than £20 each for the kids Birthdays and Christmas? I am sure that the adults are going to be just fine (if not relieved!)with a no gift arrangement .Your budget is going to be limited ,make 2023 the year where you put yourself first.

Thanks @Spandang - really interesting to see a comparison.

I think my family may be OTT on Xmas and Birthdays and I've got a sinking Feeling that I'm not going to be able to keep up ...

Zero. Family all agreed no need to do Xmas presents anymore we can buy what we need when we need it and don't really celebrate Xmas anyway

For friends just mutually doesn't happen and if they so ill obviously rexipeo ate but then make it clear id rather we just spent time together then do gift giving as I see time with someone a valuable gift in itself.

I have cut down - my friends and I don't do presents anymore (just for the kids)

I have a large immediate family though

I spend between £10-12 on children in my family and £5-8 on children my child is friends with. I spend £20 per person on adult family members, like my Mum. My own child and partner I don’t really set a budget, but it’s not a huge amount.

I buy everything in December - but only for 7 people.

Dh buys a few gifts for his side of the family.

I don't buy things through the year - I don't want to be thinking about Christmas all fucking year round!

I spend about £30 per person.

Do you do any saving throughout the year for an expensive Dec?

Worrying that If I don't save from Jan, I'll be skint by Dec!

I do exactly this with a Monzo pot. I don’t have kids or parents, but I add up the following per annum - £20 per godchild/niece/nephew for birthdays, and the same for Christmas. £30 for my family secret Santa because that’s our limit. £250 for boyfriend for Cmas and b’day. £50 for three mates b’days - we don’t do Xmas presents. Add it all up and divide by 12 and put that monthly amount into my Monzo pot. I also stick £150 from March’s non-council tax in there too to cover random congratulatory flowers for exam results, bereavements etc. I put in £65 per month in and it’s been a game changer for me in terms of managing my money better.

This is exactly what I had in mind - glad it's working well for you!

Do you find yourself going over often? I know I need discipline with it but hoping taking the monthly approach will help

I’m not too bad with it but I suspect that’s because 50% of it is teenagers so I literally put £20 in a card! I do find that I have birthday “clusters” though - March is pretty heavy for me and I have a lovely older friend who will be 80 then too (we don’t usually buy each other presents) so I’ll need to account for a flower delivery to Australia. But sticking in a month’s council tax on a month that I don’t pay it really helps create a buffer.

We started doing secret Santa with a £20 budget for the adults and it's absolutely fantastic, the presents are better than we were getting before because you're buying for just one there's more thought in it etc. We do 4 presents and stocking for the kids at Christmas and the 4 items really helps prevent the overspending that's so easily done (and stops the kids being overwhelmed with stuff)
Nieces/nephews again we've agreed a £25 limit.

Ultimately it's about deciding what works for your family, our secret Santa started more from a point of everyone was just getting too much stuff that was just stuff for the sake of stuff sometimes, same with the 4 gifts - the kids just got overwhelmed with so many items and didn't really value or have time to play properly with their toys (plus the environmental impact of all of it) the money saving just came naturally from it.

Who are the people you buy for?

I only buy for close family relatives (my dd, parents, siblings) I spend more on dd, parents around £50 each and siblings around £20.

I have 5 nieces and nephews and send around £15 on them.

I also have a gift box which I add to if I see something in the sales that I think someone will like.

we have a budget for presents and this year it was £3k, but actual spend was 2.5. This includes all gifts eg Mother’s Day, all birthdays, Xmas, one off gifts eg flowers for a special anniversary, birthday party costs etc.

I do save all year, I save £200 a month (I'm a single parent and a nurse so not on a massive income!) It leaves me with around £400 to live off to include food, petrol and any extras.

That £200 saving a broken down so £50 is towards car costs (insurance, mot and any small repairs) the rest is towards Christmas, dds bday and general emergencies. My budget for Christmas is £400-£500 and that's for 10 people, half of that budget goes on my dd though!!

Excuse my previous post I hadn't read the op properly 🙈 and thought you were talking about gifts throughout the year.

Another thing to consider is birthday accounts. I have one for my husband as he’d like to watch a cricket match in the Caribbean. Instead of buying cheaper stuff for the sake of it I often put his birthday/Christmas money in there so it’s building towards something he really wants.